The first event of the regatta season saw Quintin put together a masters D coxless quad racing in the CD Category. It was a crew of mixed experience, old hands Ken at stroke and Jose at bow while Tim and Roman at 2 and 3 seat had less than a year’s rowing behind them and were competing in their first head-to-head race. What the middle of the boat lacked in experience was made up for in enthusiasm, which unfortunately does not always convert into boat speed.
When the draw was first published there were 6 crews in the competition but this had reduced to 3 by the morning of the event. In the end we had a semi-final against Fulham Reach and a final with Henley (who had a bye) to contend with.
In the run up to race day, a lot of time was spent practicing the start and the first 25 strokes, but it was not enough to give us total confidence. Thankfully all went well with the first start and we quickly opened up a lead on Fulham. What we had spent less time practicing was rowing well at a high rate and so there was a lot of haste but not much speed. Somehow enough power was getting down into the water to widen the gap and give us the win by 3 lengths.
So on to the final. Henley had the look of a crew that had done it before, unlike some of us. We took heed of Roman’s call to relax just before the off, so another standing start was executed without incident. Unfortunately it was shortly followed by a crab. We recovered quickly, but in our desire to get back in to the race all composure went out the window! At 700m the umpire was still waving at Jose to move away from Henley’s line, so surprisingly we weren’t too far behind, finally finishing only a length or two adrift.
All in all, an enjoyable day of friendly competition and a creditable if somewhat imperfect performance. The novices learnt a lot and came away knowing that there is definitely room for improvement as the summer season progresses.
Words by Tim Must
